Il diavolo bianco

The Left Hand of God #4

by Paul Hoffman, Alessandro Storti (Translator), Anna Ricci (Translator)

C'è chi dice sia una leggenda creata per spaventare i bambini. C'è chi invece giura di averlo visto sbaragliare da solo interi eserciti, per poi svanire nel nulla, come uno spettro. Altri credono sia un demone scappato dall'inferno, altri ancora che sia l'araldo di Dio, venuto ad annunciare il giorno del giudizio. Una sola cosa è certa: tutti dormiranno sonni più tranquilli, ora che Thomas Cale è stato catturato e condannato a morte per omicidio. Nel buio della sua cella, Cale attende. In fondo sapeva che prima o poi sarebbe successo. Nel corso della sua vita, si è lasciato alle spalle una lunga scia di cadaveri, oltre che un gran numero di nemici. Non c'è da stupirsi, quindi, che uno di loro lo abbia incastrato per un delitto che non ha commesso. Ciò che lo sconcerta, invece, è vedere arrivare il Governatore Louis Van Owen con una proposta: Cale avrà salva la vita, se ucciderà il nuovo Cancelliere, un idealista determinato a rendere il mondo un posto migliore. Cale ne ha conosciuti altri, di fanatici come lui, persone così folli da nutrire ancora speranza per il futuro. La maggior parte delle volte, finiscono solo per farsi ammazzare. Ma forse questa volta Cale potrà fare la differenza. In fondo, su una cosa le leggende hanno ragione: lui è un'arma inarrestabile, e il suo destino non si è ancora compiuto…

Genres: Fantasy

540 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 2, 2021

About the author

Note: Paul^^Hoffman

Possibly the only novelist of his generation to be born by the light of a paraffin lamp, Paul Hoffman spent much of his childhood on airfields all around the world watching his father – a pioneer of sports parachuting and European Champion – jumping out of aeroplanes. After a long battle with the English educational system which involved avoiding school whenever possible he was offered a place to read English at New College, Oxford when no other university would interview him. After graduating he worked in over twenty different jobs, including boardman in a betting shop, messenger boy to a City merchant bank and teacher. He was also senior film censor at the British Board of Film Classification.

His first novel, The Wisdom of Crocodiles took thirteen years to write. Among other things it predicted the re-emergence of international terrorism in the 21st Century and the precise nature of the collapse of the world financial system. Part of the novel was made into a film starring Jude Law and Timothy Spall. His second novel, The Golden Age of Censorship, a black comedy based on his experiences as a film censor, was published in 2007. As a screenwriter he has written or co-written three produced films and worked with, among others, Francis Ford Coppola.

Reviews

[Annarella · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm sorry to see there are no reviews for this book because it's weird and fascinating at the same time.
It's hard to find the world because it's alternate history, there're some elements of dystopia and a not-so-veiled satire of politics.
Thomas Cale is a complex character on the moral grey side of the spectrum. He's arrogant, knows what he can achieve but it's also a man with a story of child abuse and gaslighting.
I think he's the highlight of this book. I didn't know if I wanted to hate or love him, surely i was charmed.
The style of writing is the most distinctive tract: a mix of backstories, documents and thriller.
Even if it's out of my comfort zone I couldn't put it down as the author is a talented storyteller.
I wish the best for this book and I think it could be appreciated by people who love alternate history.
I strongly recommend it.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

[Emma]

I cannot get on with this one at all. Such a strange style.

[Ant · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this addition to the series, despite feeling it was a little left field. I think the "quotes" from fictional books about the main character were a touch of genius. They often described the character's motives from one of two polar opposite standpoints and really helped cement Cale as a real character defying simple categorisation.

[Marco Costa · Rating 5 out of 5]

O escritor de forma inteligente, para não cair na repetição, retirou o Thomas Cale dos conflitos com os Redentores, e deu-nos um novo Thomas Cale, num Novo Mundo, num Estados Unidos transformado num barril de pólvora, luta de norte e sul pela abolição definitiva da escravatura. Mantendo porem, as suas guerras interiores de sempre, Arbell...

[Jennifer Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is set in a dystopian world. It follows Thomas Cale, who has had a very disturbing upbringing to be conditioned into some kind of ultimate warrior. However, his conscience fought back and he switched sides. His methods are still disturbing, but in his head he is doing what is necessary for the fight of good vs evil.
Ass he travels the world, fleeing from his enemies, he leaves behind a trail of death and destruction. You come to learn however that his reputation is far far worse than his true character, and that he has been built up as some sort of legend and an omen of huge disasters.
We follow Thomas as he tries to exact revenge on a betrayal from when he was a young man. He had his heart broken and his friends were all killed due to his one true love. He has since made it his mission to track her down and make her pay the ultimate price.

There are many historical events that occur or are mentioned that have happened differently to how they truly came about. Such as acts of war or assassinations of political characters.

Thomas is a very complicated character. He is very love/hate. It makes for a very interesting read as you can completely understand why he behaves a certain way, due to his horrific upbringing and all the abuse he suffered.

I really enjoyed the beginning of the book when we were getting to know Thomas and his back story. It's made me add the previous series about him to my read list.

[John Waterworth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed his three earlier Cale books, in descending order of pleasure from the first one. All three were gripping, exciting stuff, as well as developing the fascinating, and irritating, character of Thomas Cale and a few others. But this was a sequel too far. The beginning was quite promising, with an alternative version of the assassination of the US president, and gripping in places, and the end wasn't too bad. But the middle - the long, slow, discursive, pedestrian, details of Cale's tedious life at Malfi in the shadow of his past loves and life stretched over hundreds of pages - was extremely boring. I struggled to get through it, and the references to characters and incidents in earlier books don't help. After the end of this bloated, boring novel - albeit with some witty bits and mildly entertaining touches - there's an excellent essay by the author about fact, fiction, modern life and history, and the importance of story-telling. Very well done, but serving to highlight the main weakness of the preceding story - it just wasn't very entertaining.

[Agoston K · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was one of the weirdest books I have ever read. I am afraid it had no appeal for me though I was hoping down to the very last pages that I somehow get hooked.

The story is pretty basic, as old as mankind really: committing a crime for the greater good. However, all actions and places and characters and motives and the language used were all too complex. The whole of the book could have been told in a couple of hundred pages, simpler, and it would have made more sense.

The "hero" is Thomas Cale, who is a villain really - with nothing really good about him. The book seems a dystopia, a magical what-if scenario on US history, but with all characters so dark, it felt rather gothic.

[Daniel Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the first three books in this series, this book was very different from the previous 3 books in the series although I am not sure if that's only because I listened to this one on audible. there are certainly words used that made me uncomfortable to listen to on the cars audio system when driving anywhere there was a crowd. that being said it was still a really good alternative history, a twisting of events which actually happened to fit a fantasy story. The one thing I will take away from this book is when writing, to be conscious of how it will sound coming from a car 😂

[Lewis Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

i have half-remembered memories for the first three thomas cale books, so it was through this haze that i journey one more time with the left hand of god himself. this has strains of bancroft, acker and the bizarre, and its suitably weird.

[Camilla Lobolo · Rating 3 out of 5]

è molto dispersivo, ti prerdi in quello che sta descrivendo, pensavo fosse un bel libro, e lo è non fraintendermi, ma non lo rileggerei, il finale è un po' scontato e un po' da vogliacco, mi ha mandato in blocco, perché ci sono delle parti in cui è sconvolgente, altre in cui non succede nulla.

[Tim Atkinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. I really did enjoy it but it has left me baffled. Did I imagine parts of the plot or miss where they were tied up? I found it entertaining but frustrating. Still would recommend the whole series, and may go back to read the original trilogy

[Rick Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe the rest of the series was better. This seems too wrapped up in world building, creating an almost-alternative universe, for the story to move ahead unimpeded. Was there any point, to either the protagonist's journey or the story? Is weariness enough to carry a book?

[Jimmit Shah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably ruined one of my fav grimdark anti-heroes forever

[Benjamin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Frustrating.

[Owen Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent work of alternative past fiction that carries on the Left Hand of God trilogy.

kept me strongly engaged throughout

4.5 stars

[Abu Bakar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the original series but still ok

[Maurizio Ciurli]

Meglio di no

[Erika Pomella]

DNF
Ho provato ad andare avanti il più possibile ma la vita è troppo breve per dedicarla a leggere capitoli insulsi di una saga che avevi amato

[Nevada Bearder · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book very much

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5 stars

Did not live up to the first three books

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Non ho capito dove voleva arrivare lo scrittore

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to #NetGalley for providing me a copy of #TheWhiteDevil to review.

It took me a while to compile some sort of review for this book, as I found it quite disjointed and confusing. Maybe I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind to read it but from looking at other reviews it seems they found the same thing. Skipping around in time and taking a significant role in various major world history events is part of the main character’s role, but it just didn’t make for an easy to read novel unfortunately. It was interesting in a conspiracy sort of sense, but for a structured whole it was a difficult read.